The Media Mirror: what's in today's Russian newspapers?

Today’s Russian newspapers deal with: Kosovo’s path leads to NATO. Armenia – no one promised a revolution, but there still may be one. And a civilised dispute – Georgia takes Russia to court.

KOMMERSANT has published an article circulated worldwide by the Spanish Foreign ministry. The State Secretary for the Ministry, Bernardino Leon Gross, writes that the territorial integrity of Serbia is based on UN documents, so severance of any part of the territory is illegitimate. The writer says Spain has one more reason not to recognise Kosovo’s independence: the creation of states based solely on ethnicity is against Spain’s principles.

ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA reports NATO and UN peacekeepers have blocked the whole perimeter of the territory’s borders to deprive Serbia of any means of communication with its citizens in Kosovo. Hashim Tachi’s promised “to always be there” for the Serbs who decide to remain in Kosovo. But, says the paper, no one can predict, how the situation there would develop.

NEZAVISIMAYA GAZETA writes that the U.S. has started gently pushing for NATO membership for Kosovo. It seems, says the paper, that the territory, with American help, may leap over such problems as a recent devastating war and an insufficient economy while much milder problems had held back, say, Hungary’s membership for over a decade.

VREMYA NOVOSTEY says the negotiations between the U.S. and the Czech Republic in Washington are going to finalise the deal on America’s missile defence program in Europe. The paper continues: all this, plus Georgia and Ukraine seeking the status of candidate NATO members, creates a very unpleasant background for the expected participation of President Putin in the upcoming NATO summit in Romania.

The same paper reports from Armenia that the events triggered by the Presidential election look more and more like an attempted revolution. However, in fact the opposition only demands a Constitutional Court hearing on the election results.

KOMMERSANT writes about another court hearing. Georgia sued Russia at the European Human Rights Court over moral and physical damages suffered by Georgian nationals during the deportation of immigrant workers which happened at the lowest point in the two countries’ relations. Georgia also accused Russia of banning the sale of books written by authors of Georgian origin.

Russia responded to this particular accusation with a “yes”. There was such a time when works of certain Georgian-born authors were banned. Take the late 1950s and the works of Stalin and Beria.